an exciting adventure

The following account of an exciting adventure with a panther is given by Mrs. Dora Ross, wife of John C. Ross whose present residence is Harrison, Ark. The incident occurred when she was a small girl. The recollections of the attack of the ugly creature are so vivid in her mind that she remembers every incident. Mrs. Ross is a daughter of Billy James who was so well known in the northwestern part of Marion County, Ark., in the years gone by. He died a few years after the close of the Civil War. Many years ago he served as justice of the peace in the Sugar Loaf country.

Mrs. Ross is a sister of Cyrus A. James of near Protem, Mo. Here is how Mrs. Ross told the story of her dreadful experience with the ugly beast.

"My parents came to Arkansas in 1853, and located in Newton County, where the town of Western Grove is now. I was just five years old when we arrived there. After living here nearly one year we removed to East Sugar Loaf Creek and settled a short distance above the present site of Lead Hill. Here we made our home a number of years and enjoyed ourselves in the then seemingly wild forest of hills and dales. Father owned 150 head of sheep for the use of the wool, mutton and to sell to other parties. Mother like other housewives in the early days, manufactured our wearing apparel from sheep’s wool and cotton. This she did by the use of the spinning wheel and hand loom. She also taught we girls when we were old enough how to make our own clothes. People at this late day in buying all their clothing in the stores may think it strange, but women in those days made themselves nice dresses from beginning to finish. When there was a gathering of the settlers and their families in the neighborhood such as meeting and so on, men, women and children wore their homemade clothes. The cloth as a rule proved to be durable and generally of pretty colors. ....